Advertising display sign



March 6, 1956' c, JAYE 2,736,974

ADVERTISING DISPLAY SIGN Filed Feb. 20, 1953 United States Patent ADVERTISING DISPLAY SIGN Richard C. Jaye, Watertown, Wis., assignor to The Jaye Corporation, Watertown, Wis., a corporation of Wiscousin Application February 20, 1953, Serial No. 337,966

1 Claim. (Cl. 4tll3tl) This invention relates to signs for advertising displays and the like, and refers more particularly to signs having cutout letters or characters which may be readily changed or replaced to enable revision of the message conveyed by the sign.

The advertising sign of this invention is particularly adapted to take advantage of the peculiar characteristics of cellular plastic material of the type sold under the tradename Styrofoam, and it is an object of this invention to provide a sign having letters formed of this material and in which the letters may be readily changed or replaced at will, so that the sign is especially adaptable to use in situations where it must convey different messages from time to time.

Another object of this invention is to provide an unusually attractive advertising sign having cutout letters of relatively thick material which will stand out in silhouette and present the appearance of weight and mass while in fact being very light in weight.

Still another object of this invention resides in the provision of a sign of the character described having provision for the illumination from below of massive-looking cutout letters of substantial thickness.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a relatively inexpensive advertising display sign of the character described which will be unusually simple to manufacture and which will have readily detachable letters that may be changed with the utmost facility, but which will nevertheless be very striking and attractive in appearance.

With the above and other objects in view, which will appear as the description proceeds, this invention resides in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts substantially as hereinafter described and more particularly defined by the appended claims, it being understood that such changes in the precise embodiment of the herein disclosed invention may be made as come within the scope of the claim.

The accompanying drawing illustrates one complete example of the physical embodiment of the invention constructed according to the best mode so far devised for the practical application of the principles thereof, and in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of an advertising display sign embodying the principles of this invention, a portion of the base being broken away to illustrate detail;

Figure 2 is a plan view of the blank from which the base of the sign is formed; and

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on the plane of the line 3-3 in Figure 1.

Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawing in which like numerals designate like parts throughout the several views, the numeral 5 designates generally a sign embodying the principles of this invention and comprising a base 6 in which a lamp bulb 7 is mounted and concealed and upon which a number of letter elements 8 are mounted. It will be understood ice I that when the term letters or letter elements is used herein it also includes numerals or other figures or characters, and that the principles of the invention are readily applicable to all such letter elements regardless of their configuration.

The base 6 is very readily fabricated from a unitary blank 9 of relatively light sheet metal cut and bent as shown in Figure 2. This blank comprises an elongated rectangular bottom wall forming portion 12, having smaller end wall forming portions 13 extending from the shorter edges thereof and having a front wall forming portion 14 extending from one longitudinal edge thereof and a rear wall forming portion 15 extending from the other longitudinal edge thereof. The wall-forming portions 13, 14-, and 15 are bent upwardly from the base along bend lines 16, which define the bottom wall forming portion of the blank. The end and rear walls, 13' and 15' respectively, are bent substantially normal to the base, while the front wall 14 is preferably bent slightly past the vertical so as to slant rearwardly upwardly and thus more effectively conceal the light bulb 7 and reflect its rays against the rear wall 15.

The walls of the base are held in their respective positions defining the box-like structure by the simple expedient now about to be described. A tab 17 extends from each end of the rear wall and is bent perpendicular thereto to flatwise overlie. the inner surface of the adjacent end wall, and a similar tab 18 likewise extends from each end of the front wall and is bent perpendicular thereto to fiatwise overlie the adjacent end wall. These tabs are held in position by a flange 19 on each end wall bent inwardly and downwardly over the tabs. A hole 21 through each end wall, near the top center thereof, enables the sign to be hung by means of a string or wire.

The upper marginal edge portion 20 of the front wall is preferably folded over to provide stiffness and a neat trim for the upper edge of the front wall.

A loop 22 of strip material or wire, welded or otherwise secured to the base, serves as a mounting for a suitable lamp bulb socket 23 which is secured in place by clamping the loop between the complementary sections of the socket. The conductors 24, which supply current to the socket, enter the base through an aperture in one of its walls. This manner of mounting the socket not only is very inexpensive, but also locates the bulb 7 as close as possible to the bottom of the base, so that the bulb -is adequately concealed despite the relatively low height of the front wall. This disposition of the lamp bulb also assures that light will be thrown upwardly and rearwardly against the rear wall which, it will be noted, is substantially higher than the front and end walls and has the letter elements mounted upon it. v

The letter elements are cut from material of substantial thickness and are preferably fashioned of cellular plastic material such as Styrofoam. A simple and economical method of forming such letters is described at length in my companion application, Serial No. 337,967, filed February 20, 1953, now Patent No. 2,677,747. The letter elements are readily removably mounted upon the rear wall of the base in an extremely simple manner. Each letter element has a slot 26 through it parallel to its front, letter-defining face and opening to its bottom. The width of this slot is such as to snugly receive the thickness of the rear wall, and it will be apparent that the lower portion of each letter element is thus-bifurcated by this slot so that the letter may in effect straddle the rear wall. The slots are deep enough to seat the letter elements firmly on the back wall, while at the same time the major portion of each letter element extends above the wall to stand out in a striking silhouette effect.

Obviously the sign of this invention may be supplied in kit form, providing a base and one or more sets of letters, and changing the letters will involve no more than simple removal thereof from the rear wall and their replacement with others.

It will also be obvious that the sign can be provided with groups of connected letter elements spelling out entire syllables or words, and if each of these is provided with a slot corresponding to the slots in the individual letter elements they will be equally simple to install and remove.

From the foregoing description, taken together with the accompanying drawing, it will be readily apparent that this invention provides an attractive advertising display sign having readily removable letter elements and which will present a strikingly attractive appearance of weight and mass while in fact being very light.

What I claim as my invention is:

An advertising display sign comprising: a trough-like base having a front light reflecting wall and a rear letter supporting wall, the rear wall being higher than the front wall and having a straight upper edge, said front and rear walls having tabs bent inwardly therefrom at the ends of the base, and said base having a bottom wall provided with extensions bent upwardly to provide ends on the base externally of said tabs and having flanges at their upper portions bent inwardly over the upper edge portions of said tabs to hold the trough walls in their proper positions; a plurality of cut-out letter elements, each having substantial thickness from front to back, and each having a downwardly opening slot through its lower portion substantially parallel to its front letter defining face, the slots of all of said letter elements having a width substantially the same as the thickness of the rear wall of the base; said letter elements being mounted on the rear wall of the base by having the upper edge portion of said Wall snugly received in the slots of the letter elements so that the letter elements straddle the wall and the wall forms part of the background of the letter elements, all portions of the letter elements including the part thereof in which the slot is formed, by virtue of the differences in height between the front and rear walls of the base, being above the level of the top edge of the front light reflecting Wall; and a light source in the base behind its front light reflecting wall.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,327,775 Platt Jan. 13, 1920' 1,560,493 Steinberg Nov. 3, 1925 1,611,181 Fox Dec. 21, 1926 1,696,878 Bliss Dec. 25, 1928 2,058,312 Hengel Oct. 20, 1936 2,130,023 Owen Sept. 13, 1938 2,161,927 McIlvanie June 13, 1939 2,445,548 Weipert July 20, 1948 2,637,927 Gadomski May 12, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 620,776 Great Britain Mar. 30, 1949 

